Today I would like to focus on a lightening up the spiritual life. I was amazed at the statement in Sunday=s gospel that Jesus was amazed at the lack of faith. So I looked up in the Concordance other areas where Jesus is amazed. I was surprised that there is only one, which is when the Roman centurion comes to Jesus and asks Him to heal his servant. Jesus is amazed at the centurion who says, AOnly say the word and my servant will be healed.@ When you focus your imagination on this, ask yourself how Jesus reacted to the centurion=s statement of faith. Did Jesus say, AYes!@ when Jesus sees this kind of faith that He doesn=t normally see? Remember that Jesus is truly human as well as truly divine. I imagine an extremely happy and joyful Jesus in this instance.

            Let=s look at another instance from the gospels where we see the joy of God the Father. When Jesus is being baptized, He comes out of the water, and God the Father says, AThis is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.@ That=s my boy! God is really happy about His Son. So what is going on?

            We see God=s joy again in the Transfiguration where God makes the same statement. What has to be true in this situation? One thing for sure is that God is looking on His Son. God is gazing at His Son. Second, if God is pleased, I=m sure He=s smiling. Thirdly, God is embracing His Son. How do we know? Because the text says that the Holy Spirit appears, which is the love of the Father and the Son, the embrace of the two. Our God who is alive, vivacious, and positive about many things.

            How do we look at God in our spiritual lives and our relationships to Him? We live in a very psychologically oriented society and the danger is, Fr. Van Kaam used to tell us, that it is easy to move towards introspectionism. It=s one thing to examine ourselves and to evaluate our behaviors. It=s another thing to become introspectionistic, which means we dwell too much on Ame@. That kills our spontaneity and vivaciousness.

            It=s very important for us to think this way. The Eucharist is the presence of Jesus in our midst in a unique way despite that many people today, even in theological circles, like to say that the Eucharistic presence is no different than Jesus= presence in each of us. The Church teaches quite clearly that the Eucharistic presence is a unique presence. This means that when we gather around the altar, the Father looks upon us with a loving embrace. So we have reasons to be more lighthearted about our spiritual lives because of this relationship. How do you look at yourself as a sinner that=s redeemed?

            This man was meditating very seriously about judgement day and fell asleep. When he fell asleep he had a dream. In the dream he was kneeling before a podium and on the podium was a large book. Behind the podium was a throne and Jesus was seated in majesty. Jesus opens the book. The man gets up and wants to see what=s on the first page because he knows it deals with his judgement but the page is empty. You know how in some big books you have an empty page first. Jesus turns the page and the man is really curious now. He tries standing on his tiptoes to see the page and there=s nothing there - except drops of blood. He immediately realizes that Jesus, through confession, has wiped away his sins. Then the whole process continues. Jesus, going page after page comes to the end and it=s all cleansed with the blood of Christ. Then Jesus goes around the podium and embraces the man.

Back to Abbot's page